Utilities

[cowman]

I read an article in the Edmonton Sun where the Association of Rural Municipalities had sent a statement to the government that they believed the government should reverse deregulation. I guess we all know what deregulation did to prices every time we open the power or gas bill?
Kleins response: We have done a poor job of educating the Municipalities about deregulation! And besides we can't go back now as it would cost too much!!!
So basically he is admitting they blew it but can't afford to fix it! So why did they do it without having some sort of idea what would happen? Was it done because of ideology? Never look at the facts just go with your beliefs?
The PC party in Alberta are probably one of the most incompetent in the country, but they can get away with a lot because they have absolutely no opposition and the oil money continues to roll in!

[cakadu]

Seems to me the powers that be were given statistics on how this would NOT work, but they chose to ignore them in favor of the deregulation. Sadly, it ended up backfiring on them - they didn't sell the power for what they thought they were going to get for it and now we as taxpayers are having to foot the bill for the shortfall.

How many of you have noticed on your power bills (this would be folks from Alberta) that you are paying a fee to compensate for the ceiling that was placed on power rates? That fee is in effect for another year or so. How many sectors do you know of that will allow you to bill now for what you couldn't collect earlier?

What irks me now is that we are supposed to be choosing our carrier by the end of this year I think it is. I haven't paid much attention because I don't think I'm going to get much of a deal at all. Here in the rural areas, there really isn't a choice of who you can get your power from. That to me is the real rip-off - there is less choice for me than there was before.

[cowman]

Linda: I believe the rate rider(paying for the cap) comes off Jan. 1st 2004! Unfortunately the power companies have been making noises about an 11% increase which, surprize, surprize is just what the rate rider is!
I assume you get your power from the local REA? They buy their power from whoever gives them the best deal so in a round about way you supposedly get the benifits.
When the local REA took over from TransAlta. they ran a pretty tight ship contracting out maitenance to TransAlta. and a lot of administration to the local Gas co-op. Then they decided to go it alone and built a large shop and office. I went to the grand opening and I thought they were being a little extravagant!!! Not too many expenses spared! Since then they have done their best to fill up that office and shop with employees. They seem to now have a real little beuracracy going.

[cakadu]

Cowman, believe it or not, in my area, we are not under an REA. We were served by TransAlta, which was Aquila, which turned into Epcor, which has now been bought out by a company from the east coast. In all of that, I'm not too sure if as a consumer that my best interests were taken into consideration.

Point being that we can't go back, but how do we handle it from this point forward? How hard/easy will it be for them to un-deregulate us? (Sorry can't think of a better way to describe it - not enough coffee yet).

I'm just fed up with being told all these things are being done with my best interests in mind. I'm not so sure that our best interests don't go beyond how we are going to increase their coffers.

[rookie]

What did Ontario have happen a year ago or so? Didn't they deregulate their hydro or something like that ? If so, ehat happened ? How did it work out?

[cowman]

Linda: Well I did not know that! I just assumed all the rural areas were served by a REA. It would be interesting to see if the REA can buy power cheaper. My September bill for power was $.0877/kwh. which is a lot less than the $.11/kwh we paid last winter.
I suspect the government blundered on this, with alot of urging from their power company buddies. Now they have a monster on their hands that is out of control. I doubt they could ever put the genie back in the bottle now! So about all they can do now is use a lot of smoke and mirrors and BS to keep us in the dark(no pun intended).

[wilagro]

Cowman...The "monster" responsible for implementing this deregulation which quickly turned into a fiasco was Steve West. Of course he didn't do this without caucus approval, but his marks are all over the whole scheme.

My power bill is double what it used to be. Of course the "catchup" rate rider accounts for part of this.

The "Alberta Advantage"...is bulls""t.

[cowman]

wilagro: Yeah my power bill too. Also my heating bill and phone bill! Well, maybe closer to triple on the phone bill!
I think the problem was guys like West did things based on their beliefs rather than used their heads! Some of them worked out pretty good, for example privatizing liqour stores and motor vehicle registeries. Actually they were government run agencies and had become totally inefficent while most utilities were private companies that were regulated.

[dolin]

well, i paid 0.0474 kwh ,nov. bill from quebec

[wilagro]

Cowman...Deregulation must be a great thing as the Alberta Gov't is going to spend $3,000,000 over the next three years to INFORM Albertans of the ADVANTAGES of deregulation. Three MILLION dollars to convince us that the government is looking after our BEST interests.

Does this seem reasonable to you? Does this seem like the action of responsible government to me? The answer is NO! NO! NO!

I would urge all citizens of Alberta to phone their MLA and protest loud and long. This is a farce that can't continue.

[cowman]

Wilagro: Klein was very clear on this...the problem is NOT deregulation but about educating people about deregulation! That was his answer when asked why the municipalities were so against it!
Now the municipalities are our elected representatives! Hopefully we haven't elected a bunch of morons or something? And our municipal reps don't have to toe a party line either so I would suggest they represent us better than our MLA who is basically elected by the PC party?
So what Klein is saying is the people of Alberta are too dumb to understand why they are getting hosed! But fear not he will convince you using your own money to do it! Therfore we get the BS ads and maybe a little news letter explaining how we should all be glad to support his little experiment in "free market capitalism"! After all he's doing okay so why should the peasants complain?